Digital Strategy BY DAN MCMANUS


TURN STARS INTO SALES > These days, word-of-mouth has gone digital, and your business’s online repu- tation matters more than ever. Solid marketing can successfully move


your shop to the top of a Google search results page, but without the right review score, those efforts can be for naught. It’s the reviews that get shoppers to go from the search page to your website. Your Google rating is often the first


thing people see when they find your shop in a Google search. Shoppers will see your score next to two other florists at the top of the results page, and those ratings are often the determining factor in which florist they choose. In fact, about 81% of consumers use Google to evaluate local businesses, according to Exploding Topics, a market research and trend analysis platform. That’s because consumers trust what other customers have to say more than they trust ads. Businesses with better ratings also


tend to see more sales. One study from Harvard Business School even showed that a one-star increase can boost revenue by up to 9%. And Google’s search algorithm loves


reviews. The more positive ones you have, the more likely it is that your shop will pop up in local searches.


Get More Reviews Asking for reviews can feel awkward, but it doesn’t have to be. The trick is to take control of reviews by sending a survey as part of any request for a review.


SPAM-PROOF YOUR EMAILS


Recently, email providers such as Google and Yahoo have made it tougher for all marketing emails to reach inboxes. Here’s how to make sure your survey emails don’t end up in spam:


• Choose a platform. Pick a high-quality review platform with an excellent deliverability score.


• Authenticate your domain. Set up sender policy framework (SPF), DomainKeys identified mail (DKIM), and domain-based message authentication, reporting, and conformance (DMARC) settings, which show email providers your messages are legit.


• Avoid spammy language. Stay away from all caps, too many exclamation marks, or words like “free” in the subject line.


• Make it personal. Use the customer’s name and keep the tone friendly and conversational.


• Test before sending. Set up an email account with each of the main email services and send the survey emails to see if they are delivered to your inbox or flagged as spam. Adjust until they clear.


First, remove review requests from


your website, footers in your business emails and any promotional emails — you never want to ask a customer to leave a review until you know how they feel about the service. Then, ask every customer at the time of purchase to take a satisfaction survey.


Automate It After a sale or delivery, send an email asking the customer to rate their expe- rience on a scale from 1 to 10. Have two different landing pages depending on the survey response.


For happy customers (those who


rate you an eight or 10), send them to a page that encourages them to leave a Google review. Include a direct link to make it effortless. For unhappy customers (those who


rate you an eight or below) send them to a page that apologizes and promises a credit or resolution if they will call you. This shows that you care and usually takes away the heightened emotion of a disappointed patron enough that they do not go to the trouble to leave a nega- tive review. It’s important to remember that you still must include a link to your review page in accordance with Google policy.


Beware of Bad Reviews One bad review can really damage your average star rating, especially if you don’t have many reviews to start with. For example, if you have 50 reviews and get a one-star review, you will have to get 19 five-star reviews to offset the damage. That is why the survey system is so important — it protects you from getting bad reviews and increases the number of good ones.


Dan McManus is president and CEO of TeamFloral, a floral marketing and consultancy firm.


42 FLORAL MANAGEMENT | March/April 2025 | WWW.SAFNOW.ORG


SHUTTERSTOCK/MENTALMIND


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